A genre of training software that simulates simultaneous two-way communication has emerged in recent years. Such software typically involves an operator at one terminal taking control of an application at another station. Although control of the application reverts back and forth between operators at different stations, three critical differences distinguish such systems from the present invention. First, such prior systems always require a basic platform application, such as a word processor or spreadsheet. The present invention does not require such a platform application. Second, the present invention does not involve one operator taking control of an application. Two users may simultaneously control the application. Third, such applications do not contemplate free-hand writing or drawing to simulate paper and pencil writing and drawing as the principal means of effecting the shared communication.
Although some video instructional systems enable teachers to transmit images created by one student to appear at the stations of a full classroom in a single manner similar to this invention, these prior systems do not entail simultaneous and interactive communication between the teacher and student, either on a one to one or one to a selective group.
Prior instruction systems, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,401,469 to Shaver and U.S. Pat. No. 4,486,180 to are severely limited in their flexibility and interaction capabilities. In Shaver, the interaction between student and a control center is over different channels in which the instructional material is prepared in advance, unlike the present invention in which the instructional material is constructed extemporaneously. The invention disclosed in Shaver is not interactive, in that the present invention affords the ability for the material being presented to the student to change on the basis of a teacher's response to the student's input. In Riley, no simultaneous and interactive communication is contemplated, because the system is intended for standardized tests. The present invention provides a medium of simultaneously written interactions between teacher and student.
Other known systems involve the use of predefined still video information such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,798 to Tomita, et al. The present invention disseminates information interactively by the teacher as the student works. There is no need to predefine information, and it is not "still" in that the video image seen by the student is always subject to change by the teacher.
Many prior systems are not applicable to written textual communication which is the most effective manner to teach grammar or mathematics, etc. U.S. Pat. No. 3,233,346 to Cornberg involves the use of a telephone system for the student to communicate to the teacher while the student views a video display of the teacher. The invention disclosed in Cornberg is severely limiting in that it does not allow one of the most fundamental means of communication, that being the writing mode, in which student and instructor can communicate.
Even currently known software products such as "Carbon Copy" made by Meridien Technology, a subsidiary of Microcom, Inc., do not allow interaction based on extemporaneous freehand input and rely on the use of preexisting application software rather than the application-free context that the present invention provides. Of all known computer assisted instructional systems, none provide interactive freehand input in an application-free context.
Numerous other advantages and features of the invention will become readily apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiment of the invention, from the claims, and from the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the same.